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Summary
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen provides a lengthy flashback to the summer Belly was fourteen and her best friend Taylor Jewel accompanied her to the summer house to stay for a week. Taylor has long-resented Belly’s time away at Cousins Beach because she feels as though she has to win back her friend’s attention when Belly returns home at the end of each summer. After Taylor arrives at Cousins Beach, she tells Belly that she is interested in pursuing Conrad romantically, which sparks Belly’s jealousy.
Later, the girls go outside to the swimming pool, where the three boys have already gathered. After Jeremiah mistakenly calls Taylor “Tyler,” she begins to repeatedly refer to him as “Jeremy” flirtatiously. The kids play a game of chicken in teams of two. As a boy stands in the pool, a girl sits on his shoulders. The teams then face off, and the girls battle to be the first to knock the other off a boy’s shoulders. In the first round, Belly and Jeremiah form one team, and Taylor and Steven form another. After Jeremiah and Belly win the first round, they switch partners. Taylor sits on Jeremiah’s shoulders and Belly perches on Conrad’s. After a longer battle, Belly once again bests Taylor, who angrily ends the game.
Chapter Seventeen
In the present-day, Jeremiah offers to teach Belly how to drive a stick shift. While they’re practicing driving along a road that leads to the beach, Belly teases Jeremiah about kissing Taylor the previous summer. Then she remembers that her first and only kiss was with Jeremiah. She then asks him to share the story of his first kiss.
Chapter Eighteen
During Taylor’s visit the summer Belly is fourteen, the two girls spend an evening at the boardwalk with Steven and Jeremiah. Conrad decides not to join them. Taylor reveals to Belly that she’s no longer interested in Conrad and now likes Jeremiah. The girls have a disagreement about how to dress, as Taylor wants Belly to wear a dress, but she refuses. On the boardwalk, Steven leaves the group to play arcade games on his own. Jeremiah rides the carousel with the girls. Next, he wins Taylor a prize at a quarter toss game. As Jeremiah and Taylor grow closer, Belly begins to feel invisible and wishes that she had not gone with them to the boardwalk.
Chapter Nineteen
Steven prepares to leave Cousins Beach to go on a road trip with his father to visit colleges. After the trip, he plans to go home rather than return to the summer house. Steven has said that he plans to study for the SATs for the remainder of the summer, but Belly believes the truth is he wants to spend time with his new girlfriend. After Steven leaves, Belly wonders if this summer will be the families’ last real summer at Cousins Beach since Steven will be leaving for college, and with this realization, she decides to make the most of it.
Analysis
Taylor’s appearance in the story helps Belly to realize she might have feelings for both Fisher brothers. Unlike Belly, Taylor Jewel has always been a “pretty” girl who wears makeup and dresses and receives a lot of attention from boys. Belly usually plays the role of the funny sidekick in their friendship, but that dynamic becomes problematic at Cousins Beach. Belly invites Taylor to spend a week at the summer house with the intention of showing her friend that she is blossoming into a pretty girl, too. However, Taylor’s actions show no intention of sharing the spotlight with Belly. In turn, Belly realizes that she does not want to share Conrad or Jeremiah with her friend. Belly realizes she would be jealous of Taylor gaining the interest of either boy. She could lose the boy that she has wanted for years or the attention of one of her best friends. Although Belly feels torn between her feelings for both boys, she shows awareness of the selfishness when she gives Taylor permission to pursue Jeremiah but also asks her not to hurt him.
Susannah and Laurel’s healthy friendship provides a contrast to Belly’s problematic relationship with Taylor. Belly envies her mother and Susannah’s closeness and wishes that she also had the kind of friendship that lasts a lifetime. Taylor and Belly do not support or care for each other the way that Susannah and Laurel do. This is due not only to their difference in ages, but also to the way the two pairs of friends interact. Taylor and Belly’s friendship is marked by pettiness and jealousy, while Susannah and Laurel provide unconditional support to each other through life’s biggest challenges. Especially when seen against the backdrop of Susannah and Laurel’s deep consideration of each other, Belly and Taylor’s friendship appears shallow and superficial. Taylor cares more about reveling in boys’ attention than her best friend’s feelings.
When Jeremiah helps Belly learn how to drive a stick shift, the two share a couple of nice moments that help to develop the possibility of romance between them. Belly reveals that her first kiss was with Jeremiah and that she has yet to have a similar moment with Conrad despite her longtime crush on him. The circumstances surrounding the kiss remain unclear at this point as neither Belly nor Jeremiah reveals how the kiss occurred and how it affected their friendship. The question lingers and lays the groundwork for the feelings that Jeremiah reveals later in the novel.
Belly believes that after Steven leaves Cousins Beach the dynamic at the summer house will change, and this realization makes her start to see her brother in a new light. Steven provides a buffer between Belly and the Fisher brothers. Partly because he is both her sibling and their friend, but also because as the others are maturing, Steven remains mostly unchanged, at least to Belly. He maintains his role as Belly’s teasing older brother. She compares him to an old flannel blanket that smells like wet dog. Like a smelly blanket, Steven may be odorous, but he also provides consistency and comfort. The comparison is not only comedic but also emphasizes Belly’s attraction to familiarity. Belly’s sudden appreciation for the brother who usually annoys her shows how much the awareness that nothing lasts forever can change a perspective.
